"Oh, it can't be that hard; it'll only take a couple of days to code it up myself." It may be true but then consider what does it cost for the company to pay y

"Oh, it can't be that hard; it'll only take a couple of days to code it up myself." It may be true but then consider what does it cost for the company to pay your salary and benefits and rent and management overhead for 2 days? But here's the logic that I think is (too) often used: If I code it in two days and the tool costs $500 then I have saved the company $500 hundred in 2 days. Whereas if I don't do that then I will probably be doing something much less valuable in those 2 days. Maybe I just sit in the meetings. Anyway if I do it, it makes me look just as good as the company selling that tool. Doing that puts a value on my contributions which otherwise might be not so clear.